I get the feeling that Samsung often makes hardware just to be sure they've got something ready, on the slim but possibly lucrative chance that an upcoming hardware market explodes. The Galaxy Note, the Galaxy Gear, the Gear Fit, the Galaxy Beam - all of them slightly crazy niche products following a trend. If Engadget is to be believed, you can add a virtual reality headset to the mix. A Samsung VR headset, similar to the Oculus Rift but intended for use with Samsung phones and tablets, is rumored for production later this year.

A report out of The Information today claims that as early as this summer, Google will begin selling low-cost, commercial-grade Wi-Fi equipment to small and medium size businesses to greatly improve the level of connectivity they offer their customers, as well as that of the business itself.

The directive is being headed by Google's Access team, the group behind Google Fiber. The team's goals aren't detailed at great length, but here's what I was able to gather.

As was the the G2, LG's G3 is one of the most leaked high-end smartphones of the year, and the information just seems to keep on flowing. Today, GSM Arena posted images from an internal presentation on the G3 in Korea, and they basically confirm many of the device's suspected components.

Perhaps most importantly, the G3 will apparently be the first major smartphone to launch with a QHD (Quad HD) display, something long predicted as inevitable in the race to ever-denser screens.

Satellite television has been experiencing a rough transition as consumers in the US increasingly turn to internet-based video services like Netflix and Hulu, and it looks like the current industry heavyweight DirecTV is ripe for the picking: AT&T is rumored to be making a $50 billion bid for the company.

Artist's depiction of merger

AT&T operates its own television brand, UVerse, though that system is powered by Ma Bell's DSL broadband infrastructure.

In our recent post about Google's plans to break its Search sauce out of the dedicated app and bring it to the rest of Android, I alluded to the fact that we'd have more to talk about later. Specifically left un-discussed were the implications of new navigation buttons for the Android home screen. As readers will remember, our information leads us to believe that the navigation bar will be getting a shakeup, with the new layout including the typical back and multitask buttons, plus a "Google" button, which appears - for now - to be an actual Google logo.

Earlier this month Android Police reported on Android Silver, a possible upcoming push into premium hardware from Google and its partners. Android Silver would see Google selecting high-end Android phones with standardized software to promote both itself and through conventional retail channels. According to a new report from Amir Efrati at The Information, the Silver program is still well underway and aimed to take on the iPhone at the top of the phone market.

We've recently seen plenty of rumors related to Google's future plans for its Search app, from automatically remembering where you parked to reminding you of things when you're with another person, to reminding you to pay bills, down to something as simple as setting a proper timer. Clearly, Google's got plenty of plans for what will happen inside Search. But today, we've got something a little different - this time, it relates to how Google's voice assistant will break out of Search, entering other Google apps to help you do more with your voice and perform more actions with Search in general.

There have been a lot of leaks lately, and they don't show any sign of slowing down - Yoel Kaseb (via Google+) has shared screenshots of what he claims to be a test build of a redesigned Google+ app. According to his post, the build is unstable and probably unfinished, and he has since been locked out from accessing or using the APK. But what we can see from the screenshots Kaseb managed to capture is both compelling and in line with some of the other leaks we've seen recently.

An Amazon phone has been rumored almost as long as an Amazon tablet, but now we might have actually caught our first glimpse of this unicorn device. Photos acquired by BGR show a phone clad in protective armor to hide the design. It appears to have a number of unusual sensors on the front, but the accompanying information points to a use for them – Amazon's Kindle phone will allegedly have a 3D interface.

Included in Android's design guidelines is a section regarding iconography. The guidelines give very specific instructions on how to design a launcher icon for Android - it should have a unique silhouette, it should have a slight downward perspective, and it should be clearly visible no matter what wallpaper is behind it.

Many have opined, however, that it's odd that Google maintains different iconography for its apps on Android and their corresponding web services.